Weddingbee Blog

Over the course of wedding planning, many a bride or groom will find themselves mucking around legal paperwork to make sure everything can happen.

In late June Mr. L and I realized that if we wanted to go on our Mexican honeymoon, we would need to apply for our passports (mine was long expired and Mr. L never had one). So, we grabbed up all of our information and our needed proofs of being and brought it to our county clerk (luckily, we did this days before the price increase).

Little did I know that when you apply for a passport, they send off your birth certificate during the verification process.

This left me a little worried (can you tell I’m a stress case?). What if our birth certificates were lost in the mail? What if they don’t get back to us in time? None of these were settling questions when those two pieces of paper were necessary for getting our marriage license.

Fortunately, my worries were put to rest during the first week of August when we received both our birth certificates and our shiny, brand new passports.

We were officially set to cross the US border! Next up was to apply for our NYS Marriage License.

As soon as I learned that NYS marriage licenses are valid for 60 days, I knew we would be applying well in advance. I didn’t want to risk my fried wedding brain forgetting to complete this very important task; so on August 12th we applied and were officially licensed to wed! Now all we need to do is remember to bring it to the ceremony!

Technically, these aren’t the last of my worries on the paperwork front. I know I will have my hands full when it comes to legally changing my name and it’s definitely not something I look forward to. I am pretty jealous of Mr. L right now! Either way I am relieved to have these two very important documents out of the way and am eager to put them to use.

I will offer these bits of advice for other brides and grooms:

• Don’t wait until the last minute to collect your required application materials. Birth certificates and other legal documents can take a long time to receive in the mail.
• If you are planning a honeymoon outside of the US, make sure your passports are up to date or give yourself plenty of time to apply (they can take up to 8 weeks to be delivered with standard fees).
• Research to determine where you can apply for these documents.
• Make sure you bring the correct form of payment. Many places only accept cash or checks (at least in NYS).
• Put together a document application folder that contains all the necessary information needed to apply.
• Once you receive these important documents, keep them in a safe place.
• Do not lose your marriage license,  it contains information that could be used to steal your identity.
• And, last but not least…don’t forget to bring these documents to your intended event!

Do you have any tips for brides/grooms and the necessary paperwork? Did you wait until the last minute to apply for things, or did you plan ahead?